Disclaimer: All Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel: the Series characters
belong to Joss Wheadon and Mutant Enemy. Like so many others, I'm just
playing in his sandbox.
Without Shrimp, ch. 6
Joyce opened up the door, and held it open for the soaking wet forms of Tara and the Willow from the future.
"Tara, Willow, what's going on? Why is our Willow upstairs in Buffy's room, crying her eyes out?"
"Joyce," Tara softly said, looking Buffy's mother directly in the eyes, "haven't you asked yourself why WE weren't with Buffy, Giles, and the others when they came back to this time?" Joyce looked away, not wanting to answer. "That's right Joyce, we're not there. Not where, or when, they're from. You, me, Anya, Spike, we're all gone."
"Willow, is this true? We're ALL-?" So that was why future Dawn told her to go see a doctor about her headaches? "Even Spike?"
Willow bowed her head. "Yes. You- passed on later this year." And so does Buffy, she quietly added to herself. "We thought with the tumor removed, everything was going to be all right, but then one day, Buffy comes home and finds you-" she sniffled and forced herself to continue, "she finds you on the couch. An aneurysm. A blood vessel burst, the coroner told us you died almost instantly. Tara- Tara died from a stray shot from some ones gun, and Anya and Spike-"
Tara placed her hand on Willow's shoulder.
"There was a great battle last year. Last year, my time, I mean. The First Evil decided that since I had brought Buffy back from the dead, the Slayer bloodline was off-balance enough that it's minions could finally destroy the line of the Slayers, by killing off all of the potential Slayers, then Faith, then Buffy herself."
"What do you MEAN, you brought Buffy back from the dead? I thought Xander gave her mouth-to-mouth after the master-" oh. oh, no. "She dies, doesn't she. My little girl-"
"I'm sorry Joyce, she died saving Dawn's life from the Hell Goddess Glory. I had to find and use the Urn of Osiris to-"
"Well, you won't this time around Red." Spike said, from the doorway of the house. "No Glory, no dead Buffy. I just took care of that." He tossed a small black metal box onto the floor. A radio-controlled detonator switch. " I just came to say goodbye to ye, mum, that's all. Once the Slayer finds out I can, and always could kill, even with this blasted chip in me head, she'll be itching to put my good-looking hide to a dusty end. But at least she'll be alive to do it. You won't have to bury Buff. No mother should have to bury their own children." He turned and started to walk out into the rain.
"Spike, wait!' he kept walking. "Spike! Spike, come in." His mouth dropped open, and the cigarette fell out, to sizzle out in the puddle he stood in. He turned to look at Joyce, who stood in the doorway, holding it open for him. "I have hot cocoa.."
"Bloody hell, " he muttered, "Gonna end up wet AND dusty, once the Slayer finds out.." He shrugged out of the waterlogged duster as he stepped into the living room. "Not a good idea, letting a killer like me in again, mum. I just said I'd killed that Glory bint, and you act like I just said I'd took Dawn out for cookies and ice cream. I'm a killer, a demon, EVIL, with a capital 'E'. Why can't you ever seem to get that?"
Future Willow spoke up. "Because neither Spike the demon, or William the Bloody Awful Poet could stand to see the Summers women hurt. You constantly put your own unlife on the line for my best friend, you went out and got yourself a soul for her, because you thought she deserved it, you even DIED for her, Spike. Hardy the actions of the kind of evil fiend you pretend to be."
"A SOUL? Like the great, angsty Poof? Bollocks, woman! You ARE daft!"
"Spike, listen to me. You can't leave, someone needs to be here for Buffy and Dawn, and whether Xander likes it or not, you're one of the Scooby's now." Joyce said, and both Willow and Tara nodded at that. "Spike. William. Chances are, I may not be here, soon. From what Willow told me, there's something wrong, and no matter what we do, I may not make it. I want you to be here for them, they're going to need you."
"Joyce, we have to go see about Willow, she needs Tara, right now." Willow said, and the pair headed up the stairs.
Willow gasped at seeing Buffy's old room, intact, just as she remembered it. The Willow from 'now' was curled up, rocking in Buffy's arms, making sniffling and whimpering noises. Buffy raised a tear-stained face to glare at the Willow from her (?) future.
"What the hell did you tell her, Willow?" Buffy demanded.
Tara climbed onto the bed, and held both the Slayer and her lover. "The truth, Buffy. Just the truth. Two years from now, I'll be dead. Murdered. Shhh, Willow. I'm still here, I'm not gone yet."
"WHO? For gods sake, tell me who! Some demon? A vamp? Tell me who, I'll make sure they can't hurt you!"
"No, no you won't, Buffy. You won't, because it hasn't happened yet, and because the person who kills me is a human being. You can't punish someone for something they haven't done yet."
"A- a human?"
"To be fair, Buffy, you couldn't do anything, then, you'd just been shot, yourself.. You almost died. You would have, if I hadn't saved your life in the ER. Not all the bad guys are demons, Buffy. Some are ordinary human beings." And I became one of them, Willow mentally added.
"And not all demons are intrinsically bad. Spike seems to be changing, for the better. He's not nearly as snarky as he was when I first met him." Tara added.
"He's a vampire, Tara. He has no soul. He tried to kill me with a broken bottle, once." Younger Willow added, with a sniffle. "He can't change."
"You won't think that, once he saves Xander's life from Caleb." Older Willow retorted.
"Wait a minute, Spike hates Xander! He wouldn't save Xander's life." Buffy added, confused.
"He's changing, Buffy. He's not the same Spike who came to kill you on Parent-Teacher night, and by the end, he'll be one of the good guys. You considered him your champion, and chose him over Angel. Before he died, you even admitted to him how you feel for him."
"What, total and utter disgust?"
"No, Buffy, let's just say, that in two or three years, your feelings toward Spike are closer in tune to what happened in my 'Will Be Done' spell than what you're telling yourself you feel right now." Older Willow laughed. "Spike loves you, Buffy. Not in a human way, right now, but he does love you. He proved it, even to me. He DIED for you, Buffy. That should be a big sign, right there."
"But Angel said-"
"Angel was talking about Angelus, and most other vampire's. Spike's different."
"Well, he's certainly a freak." Buffy said with an almost growl. "You mean, he and I-"
"Not so much in the openly dating kind of way, more like in the sneaking around, having hot, sweaty sex, being afraid of telling your friends kind of way." She let that sink in. "To be truthful, we probably would have freaked. We did for a while, until he saved Xander's life. You removing his chip was also not in the approval list, but he'd already gotten the soul, by then."
"Spike got a SOUL? What, did he hunt down that gypsy clan, and harass them until they cursed him, too?"
"No, he did it for you. It wasn't a curse, it didn't have any catch- 22 flaws, he hunted it down and got it for you. He thought you deserved it." She looked over to where Tara and her younger self cuddled with each other. "It's kind of sad, though. You never admitted to him how you felt until the end."
"What, when he supposedly sacrifices his life to save me?"
"No. When he sacrificed his life, to save us all."
"Alright, mum, I'll stay the summer, long enough to see if you're all right." Spike said to Joyce.
"And then?"
"And then, I might just go to see a demon in Africa, about something Buffy needs, maybe. It all depends on Buffy, though, doesn't it?"
TBC.
Without Shrimp, ch. 6
Joyce opened up the door, and held it open for the soaking wet forms of Tara and the Willow from the future.
"Tara, Willow, what's going on? Why is our Willow upstairs in Buffy's room, crying her eyes out?"
"Joyce," Tara softly said, looking Buffy's mother directly in the eyes, "haven't you asked yourself why WE weren't with Buffy, Giles, and the others when they came back to this time?" Joyce looked away, not wanting to answer. "That's right Joyce, we're not there. Not where, or when, they're from. You, me, Anya, Spike, we're all gone."
"Willow, is this true? We're ALL-?" So that was why future Dawn told her to go see a doctor about her headaches? "Even Spike?"
Willow bowed her head. "Yes. You- passed on later this year." And so does Buffy, she quietly added to herself. "We thought with the tumor removed, everything was going to be all right, but then one day, Buffy comes home and finds you-" she sniffled and forced herself to continue, "she finds you on the couch. An aneurysm. A blood vessel burst, the coroner told us you died almost instantly. Tara- Tara died from a stray shot from some ones gun, and Anya and Spike-"
Tara placed her hand on Willow's shoulder.
"There was a great battle last year. Last year, my time, I mean. The First Evil decided that since I had brought Buffy back from the dead, the Slayer bloodline was off-balance enough that it's minions could finally destroy the line of the Slayers, by killing off all of the potential Slayers, then Faith, then Buffy herself."
"What do you MEAN, you brought Buffy back from the dead? I thought Xander gave her mouth-to-mouth after the master-" oh. oh, no. "She dies, doesn't she. My little girl-"
"I'm sorry Joyce, she died saving Dawn's life from the Hell Goddess Glory. I had to find and use the Urn of Osiris to-"
"Well, you won't this time around Red." Spike said, from the doorway of the house. "No Glory, no dead Buffy. I just took care of that." He tossed a small black metal box onto the floor. A radio-controlled detonator switch. " I just came to say goodbye to ye, mum, that's all. Once the Slayer finds out I can, and always could kill, even with this blasted chip in me head, she'll be itching to put my good-looking hide to a dusty end. But at least she'll be alive to do it. You won't have to bury Buff. No mother should have to bury their own children." He turned and started to walk out into the rain.
"Spike, wait!' he kept walking. "Spike! Spike, come in." His mouth dropped open, and the cigarette fell out, to sizzle out in the puddle he stood in. He turned to look at Joyce, who stood in the doorway, holding it open for him. "I have hot cocoa.."
"Bloody hell, " he muttered, "Gonna end up wet AND dusty, once the Slayer finds out.." He shrugged out of the waterlogged duster as he stepped into the living room. "Not a good idea, letting a killer like me in again, mum. I just said I'd killed that Glory bint, and you act like I just said I'd took Dawn out for cookies and ice cream. I'm a killer, a demon, EVIL, with a capital 'E'. Why can't you ever seem to get that?"
Future Willow spoke up. "Because neither Spike the demon, or William the Bloody Awful Poet could stand to see the Summers women hurt. You constantly put your own unlife on the line for my best friend, you went out and got yourself a soul for her, because you thought she deserved it, you even DIED for her, Spike. Hardy the actions of the kind of evil fiend you pretend to be."
"A SOUL? Like the great, angsty Poof? Bollocks, woman! You ARE daft!"
"Spike, listen to me. You can't leave, someone needs to be here for Buffy and Dawn, and whether Xander likes it or not, you're one of the Scooby's now." Joyce said, and both Willow and Tara nodded at that. "Spike. William. Chances are, I may not be here, soon. From what Willow told me, there's something wrong, and no matter what we do, I may not make it. I want you to be here for them, they're going to need you."
"Joyce, we have to go see about Willow, she needs Tara, right now." Willow said, and the pair headed up the stairs.
Willow gasped at seeing Buffy's old room, intact, just as she remembered it. The Willow from 'now' was curled up, rocking in Buffy's arms, making sniffling and whimpering noises. Buffy raised a tear-stained face to glare at the Willow from her (?) future.
"What the hell did you tell her, Willow?" Buffy demanded.
Tara climbed onto the bed, and held both the Slayer and her lover. "The truth, Buffy. Just the truth. Two years from now, I'll be dead. Murdered. Shhh, Willow. I'm still here, I'm not gone yet."
"WHO? For gods sake, tell me who! Some demon? A vamp? Tell me who, I'll make sure they can't hurt you!"
"No, no you won't, Buffy. You won't, because it hasn't happened yet, and because the person who kills me is a human being. You can't punish someone for something they haven't done yet."
"A- a human?"
"To be fair, Buffy, you couldn't do anything, then, you'd just been shot, yourself.. You almost died. You would have, if I hadn't saved your life in the ER. Not all the bad guys are demons, Buffy. Some are ordinary human beings." And I became one of them, Willow mentally added.
"And not all demons are intrinsically bad. Spike seems to be changing, for the better. He's not nearly as snarky as he was when I first met him." Tara added.
"He's a vampire, Tara. He has no soul. He tried to kill me with a broken bottle, once." Younger Willow added, with a sniffle. "He can't change."
"You won't think that, once he saves Xander's life from Caleb." Older Willow retorted.
"Wait a minute, Spike hates Xander! He wouldn't save Xander's life." Buffy added, confused.
"He's changing, Buffy. He's not the same Spike who came to kill you on Parent-Teacher night, and by the end, he'll be one of the good guys. You considered him your champion, and chose him over Angel. Before he died, you even admitted to him how you feel for him."
"What, total and utter disgust?"
"No, Buffy, let's just say, that in two or three years, your feelings toward Spike are closer in tune to what happened in my 'Will Be Done' spell than what you're telling yourself you feel right now." Older Willow laughed. "Spike loves you, Buffy. Not in a human way, right now, but he does love you. He proved it, even to me. He DIED for you, Buffy. That should be a big sign, right there."
"But Angel said-"
"Angel was talking about Angelus, and most other vampire's. Spike's different."
"Well, he's certainly a freak." Buffy said with an almost growl. "You mean, he and I-"
"Not so much in the openly dating kind of way, more like in the sneaking around, having hot, sweaty sex, being afraid of telling your friends kind of way." She let that sink in. "To be truthful, we probably would have freaked. We did for a while, until he saved Xander's life. You removing his chip was also not in the approval list, but he'd already gotten the soul, by then."
"Spike got a SOUL? What, did he hunt down that gypsy clan, and harass them until they cursed him, too?"
"No, he did it for you. It wasn't a curse, it didn't have any catch- 22 flaws, he hunted it down and got it for you. He thought you deserved it." She looked over to where Tara and her younger self cuddled with each other. "It's kind of sad, though. You never admitted to him how you felt until the end."
"What, when he supposedly sacrifices his life to save me?"
"No. When he sacrificed his life, to save us all."
"Alright, mum, I'll stay the summer, long enough to see if you're all right." Spike said to Joyce.
"And then?"
"And then, I might just go to see a demon in Africa, about something Buffy needs, maybe. It all depends on Buffy, though, doesn't it?"
TBC.